Many attempts have been made to integrate various aspects of communications between devices within a home computing and consumer electronic environment. These attempts, however, have typically been customized to allow communications between certain types of devices, but have not address the more generalized problem of communicating between a broader range of devices with incompatible formats. There are established standards for transmitting certain types of information from one device to another. For example, the audio output of a television can be connected to the audio input of an amplifier for directing the audio to the high-quality speakers attached to the amplifier. Similarly, the audio output associated with a computer system can also be directed to the amplifier. It might not, however, be possible to direct the audio output of a telephone to that same amplifier. More generally, there are limitations on to which devices output of certain devices can be directed. These limitations result primarily from not having a general solution for interconnecting the devices or converting the output in one format to an input format that is acceptable by another device. To direct the output of a telephone to an amplifier, one would need to identify and locate an appropriate conversion routine for converting the output format of the telephone to the input format of the amplifier. If such a conversion routine cannot be found, then one would need to program a special-purpose conversion routine. In addition, an appropriate transmission medium would need to be used to transmit the data from the telephone to the amplifier.
It would be desirable to have a technique in which such conversion routines could be easily identified, downloaded to a home computer, and installed.